


Game Night

by Strawberry_Requiem



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Female My Unit | Byleth, Fluff, Minor Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Minor Sylvain Jose Gautier/Mercedes von Martritz, Pining, Pining Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, i wrote something that isn't smut be proud of me, this totally isn't inspired by stuff that happened in my games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strawberry_Requiem/pseuds/Strawberry_Requiem
Summary: A modern AU in which the Blue Lions have a bi-weekly Dungeons and Dragons night. It becomes increasingly obvious to the others that Dimitri's using the games as an excuse to flirt with Byleth in character because he lacks the confidence to do it out of character.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 8
Kudos: 77





	Game Night

**Author's Note:**

> I've compiled a list of relevant information about their characters and my notes on the names where I felt it necessary for you to use for clarification.
> 
> Dimitri: Dimitrios the Lion of Dawn(Dimitri is not creative with names). Tabaxi Paladin. Lawful Good.  
> Byleth: Ashen Demon. Tabaxi Rogue. Chaotic Neutral.  
> Sylvain: Dick Hardonne (his name is a dick joke). Half-elf Bard. Chaotic Good.  
> Ingrid: Gwyndoin(Named after legends). Human Fighter/Barbarian multiclass. Neutral Good.  
> Ashe: Pan Flintbottom (Named after legends). Halfling Ranger. Chaotic Good.  
> Felix: Oberon Starfell (the lore is he wanted to just call his character Felix, so Annette named him Oberon Starfell). Human Fighter/Rogue multiclass. True Neutral.  
> Annette: Rhiannon Silverleaf(looked up fantasy names). Elf sorcerer. Chaotic Good.  
> Dedue: Lanar(used a name generator). Aasimar Cleric. Neutral Good.  
> Mercedes: The DM.

_ The last of the bandits raked their sword along Ashen Demon's abdomen. Her tail lashed angrily behind her, fangs bared. Quickly, her eyes darted around to the rest of the party. Dick Hardonne was doubled over, just barely hanging on to life. Gwyndoin was clutching her greatsword, her blood dripping down her knuckles. She couldn't see Pan Flintbottom anywhere, but she thought she heard him cry out in pain somewhere in the tree line. Oberon Starfell was doing his best to hide the pain, but when his eyes flickered towards Rhiannon Silverleaf, there was fear there. Lanar was doing his best to keep the others alive, but she knew he was running low on magic for the day. _

_ Dimitrios the Lion of Dawn came charging up from behind his gleaming shield and ran the bandit through seconds after the attack on Ashen Demon. _

_ "You shall not harm her!" He growled, fangs bared, ignoring the bandit's pathetic cries of pain when he pulled his lance back and went in for a second attack. _

"Dimitri, how do you want to do this?" Mercedes asked from behind her tabletop partition. The sound of her resin dice clinking against her wooden dice tray filled the room. It elicited a shared shiver down the group's spine while they anticipated another creature coming out from the surrounding forest. There was something almost wicked in the way she looked at them, which betrayed her usual gentle nature.

"I don't think Pan could survive another onslaught if this isn't it." Ashe laughed nervously while he eyed his mini from his seat around the dining room table.

"She's just rolling dice to fuck with you, Ashe," Sylvain said, "but really, Dick's gonna die if this isn't it."

"I want Dimitrios to stand like a shield between Ashen Demon and the bandit and bury his lance into his chest until he stops moving." Dimitri placed his pencil down on the table and shut his character binder. It had been a rough session, and the way his pencil was nearly cracked in half was the true testament to that. Knowing that his blow managed to save them, but more important, Byleth's character, he was relieved.

They finished clearing the tomb of the forgotten king earlier, and that was fine, permitting they got a long rest shortly after. On their way back to the Capitol to report to the quest giver and sell the treasures they found, they made camp, but they neglected to remember that the road they traveled was a frequent hunting ground for highwaymen and bandits. When Dick ""politely"" refused to give them one hundred gold to ensure safe passage, they were attacked. Bandits were a fairly typical occurrence, so much that Mercedes hardly had them deal with them anymore. However, given their rough state after the tomb of the forgotten king, they were in over their heads.

"Okay, so Ashen Demon is clutching at the wound in her stomach, eyes wide as she sees the bandit rear back for a following attack. This is it. She's going to die here, and by an average, run of the mill bandit. But then Dimitrios comes charging up like a white knight. He wraps his arm with his shield behind her, giving her more coverage as he forces his lance into the bandit once. Twice. The twitching stops by the third jab. Now that the bandit threat is taken care of, what would you like to do?"

"Lanar is going to cast Mass Cure Wounds on…" Dedue trails off, counting the people at the table while checking with his character sheet, "I don't have enough for everyone."

"I'll heal Ashen Demon and myself," Dimitri started, "now that the bandits are taken care of, I drop my lance and shield and take Ashen Demon's hands...er…paws, in mine and I tell her that it will be okay now, and I give her 30 points of lay on hands."

"Thanks, but if we're finishing our long rest, I'll be fine." Byleth said. 

Sylvain made a kissy face that went ignored or unseen by the rest of the group, barring Annette, who giggled behind her hand. 

"If Dimitrios the Lion of Dawn and Ashen Demon are okay, I'll heal the rest of the group," he rolled some dice, "for 15 points."

"If there isn't any threat, can we take a break? I  _ really _ have to pee." Annette squirmed in her chair as she spoke.

"Yeah, and the pizza's gonna get cold if we wait much longer." Ingrid added.

Mercedes gave them a solitary nod and put the dice she was shuffling in her palm down in her tray. "A break sounds nice. We'll pick this up in 20 minutes?"

"Good. I call dibs on the bathroom!" Annette shot from her seat and ran out of the room. Following her, Mercedes, Ingrid, and Byleth stepped into the kitchen while Ingrid told them about how she commissioned Ignatz to do art of Gwyndoin and she was excited about the result. Dimitri took the time to collect his stray dice, only half aware of Dedue on his right compiling his notes, though the metallic  _ snap  _ of the three-ring binder did cause both him and Ashe to jump instinctively. 

"So, when is Dimitrios gonna tell Ashen he's got a crush on her?" Sylvain asked with a sly smirk as he toyed with the tabaxi rogue figure on the table. 

Dimitri's blood went cold when Sylvain's gaze fell on him. By the expression and the way his fingers lingered over Byleth's mini, it was obvious he meant much more of this than asking about their characters. He turned towards Dedue and pretended to be keenly interested in his notes on the session in an attempt to dissuade Sylvain.

"Did you say something to me?" Questioned Ashe as he looked up from his character sheet.

"Shit, sorry. Ashen Demon. Not you, Ashe."

The diversion was not enough to break Sylvain from his line of questioning. He had pushed the Ashen Demon and Dimitrios minis into one another. It would have seemed coincidental, except Dimitri had seen the kissy faces he was making earlier and  _ knew _ he was suggesting more with the action.

"C'mon! I can't be the only one to notice it. All this  _ you shall not harm her _ bullshit and being a meat shield for her when she had taken the least amount of damage."

"Rhiannon could have probably used a tank more," Felix agreed, "maybe Pan."

"You're just saying that because you and Annette are dating." Dimitri's defense was a weak one and he knew it. He didn't need to see Sylvain's raised eyebrow, hear how Dedue cleared his throat as he flipped a page in his binder, or how Ashe tried to conceal a chuckle as a cough to know. They knew. 

"Or, is Dimitrios fond of Ashen Demon because  _ Dimitri _ is fond of  _ Byleth _ ?" Sylvain's words were cut with the sort of grin that made Dimitri's stomach churn. 

"I...I don't know what you mean." He fumbled as he dropped the handful of dice he collected from the table down into his dice tray and stood up to make a quick escape. 

"What are you talking about?"

Annette had since finished using the bathroom and returned to the dining room. Her hands were anchored on her hips as she surveyed the table, though she lingered over Dimitri while he tried to escape into the kitchen under the guise of wanting pizza.

"Just how Dimitri uses his character to flirt with Byleth." Ashe offered.

"Oh, yeah. I thought we all knew this. Wasn't it obvious when she died that time and Dimitrios refused to fight the rest of the battle because he was holding her body and trying to appeal to his goddess to bring her back?"

That was the last straw for Dimitri. He couldn't handle another moment of the prodding, so he hurried into the kitchen for a much-needed change of scenery. Ingrid was showing Mercedes something on her phone near the stove while he hastily loaded a paper plate up with several slices of cheese pizza and silently ate.

"Is something wrong," Ingrid asked, phone abandoned in favor of looking at him, "you're all red and a bit sweaty."

Dimitri shoveled a piece of pizza into his mouth to give himself time to consider how to respond to that. "Just a stressful battle."

Ingrid gave him an unconvinced nod. 

"Where's Byleth? I thought she came in here for food." He noticed Byleth had been absent when he stepped into the room but was too concerned with giving himself a distraction that he didn't think to comment. Maybe asking after her wasn't the best thing to do when he was just called out about prioritizing her, but it was his instinct to do so all the same. 

"She stepped out to take a phone call."

"Well, I'm going to head back to the table and make sure Sylvain isn't messing with my mini again." Ingrid said. She then took two more slices of pizza onto her plate and left.

Dimitri ate another piece while Mercedes straightened up the counter and shuffled the contents of one partial box into another. His heart was still pounding while everyone's words played over in his head. To calm himself, he gulped down several breaths of air and got a drink of water. As much as he didn't want to hear it, he knew it was true that he was using his character to dance around his real feelings and he knew he couldn't keep avoiding what he felt for Byleth. 

"Mercedes, if it would be okay, I would like to roleplay a bit over the long rest if Dimitrios and Ashen Demon end up doing a watch together."

"Sure! I don't think I'm going to have you roll perception checks anyway because that last fight was a bit unfair and I feel bad for throwing it in so soon after the tomb of the forgotten king."

* * *

Byleth was the last to return to the table after their break. She shoved her phone into her pocket while she took her seat between Sylvain and Annette, a concealed look of concern that no one seemed to notice except Dimitri.

"Is everything alright, Byleth?" He asked as he pushed around his dice with his thumb for a needed diversion.

"Yeah. My dad's just working on the pickup right now, so I don't have a ride home."

Someone deliberately kicked Dimitri's shin just as she finished speaking. He glanced around for the culprit, only to find Sylvain subtly jerking his head toward Byleth. 

"I could drive you. It's on my way." 

"I can walk. It's not far."

"Nonsense. I insist."

"Okay. Thanks."

There was a momentary pause at the table while everyone pulled their character sheets out and rearranged the minis on the map. Mercedes rolled some dice behind her partition. The result was dissatisfactory as her face screwed up in a frown and she plopped them into a cloth bag near her ankles with a hushed  _ to jail with you _ . 

"Hey, Mercedes?" Sylvain asked, pencil rapping across the cover of his spiral notebook.

"Yes, Sylvain?"

"Is Libelle the Red ever going to contact Dick? They shared a night of passion and he hasn't heard from her since."

Mercedes smiled. "You'll have to wait and see."

"I can't believe you let him seduce a dragon." Ingrid said.

"Seduce? I didn't  _ seduce _ . I  _ romanced _ Libelle. Wined and dined her. And Dick's really screwed up that she hasn't called him in a while."

"Phones don't exist in Dungeons and Dragons." Dedue said without looking up from his character binder while he took notes.

"Sending exists. She could call."

"Maybe she did call and he didn't answer, so she's waiting for him to call her now." There was something in Mercedes' sweet words that almost sounded pained. Dimitri looked over to Sylvain, who had gone pink and was keeping his eyes focused on the map as opposed to her.

"I get the impression this isn't about the game anymore," Ashe arranged the miniature campsite in a way he found satisfactory, "are we ready to start?"

Mercedes's expression returned to normal and she nodded. "I am, yes. Are you all ready?"

An affirmative murmur followed.

"Okay, good. So, on your way back to the Capitol from the tomb of the forgotten king, you decided to take the imperial highway for expediency in travel. Just as you were bedding down for the night, a group of bandits approached you and demanded one hundred gold for your safe travel on the highway. After some… _ interesting  _ negotiations from Dick, the bandits decided they no longer wanted your money and attacked. You managed to successfully defeat the bandits with Dimitrios landing the final blow. What do you want to do?"

"Are our tents still in serviceable order?" Dedue asked. 

"Yes. You didn't do anything in combat that would have compromised them."

"Then if everyone agrees, I think we should proceed with the long rest."

Another affirmative murmur. 

"I'm going to bed," Annette exclaimed with an exaggerated fake accent, "I'm hurting all over."

"Me too," Ashe agreed, "but can I collect some of my arrows first?"

"Roll a…roll an investigation check."

Ashe tossed a green and blue die onto the table in front of him. "That's a….19?"

"You manage to collect three of the four arrows you fired, but when you go to get the fourth, it splinters and breaks as you pull it out of the corpse."

"Are we taking watch tonight?" Asked Felix.

"We probably should. There's no telling if there's more bandits who will ambush us while we sleep." Ingrid added.

Annette made a disappointed noise.

"I'll take first watch," Byleth offered, "I'm still over half HP and should be fine."

Dimitri's heart leaped into his throat. He rubbed some of the sweat that accumulated on his palms onto his jeans. "I can take watch with you."

_ All was silent in the campsite while Dimitrios and Ashen Demon sat beside the fire. The sky was clear that night, but he had no interest in the stars. Blood still stained Ashen Demon's clothes, and while she tried to hide the pain, he could see in the way her tail twitched that she was experiencing some discomfort.  _

_ "Are you alright?" He asked voice low as to not rouse the others. _

_ She nodded, but elaborated with "You really helped me back there." _

_ "Anything for you." _

_ Ashen Demon went silent, and Dimitrios felt as though he missed his chance to express what he felt. He licked his fangs anxiously, grip tightened on his lance. "Ashen Demon, I'm quite...taken by you. More than what would be deemed appropriate for a friend or colleague. When you were injured, I was beside myself with worry. If something happened to you-" _

_ "-Dimitrios, you don't need to explain yourself. I have feelings for you too." _

_ When she came to sit beside him, Dimitrios' stomach went up in butterflies. She placed her paw within his, which was tiny in comparison to his own, and rested her head on his shoulder.  _

_ The rest of the watch proceeded uneventfully. _

* * *

Dungeons and Dragons went by without much issue for the remainder of the night. They reported to the quest giver, who gave them all a hefty sum of money for its completion and decided to spend a couple of days in the city resting and doing some shopping. They were told to report back when they were ready to leave because there was another job for them if they were looking, but they  _ really _ wanted a little downtime. 

Just as everyone was packing up their things because Mercedes was winding things down, the party caught sight of a red dragon flying above the city and touching down somewhere in the prairie beyond the city gates. They lost sight of her, but while they tried to pursue, Dick heard a voice in his head that said  _ We need to talk. Meet me outside the city gates _ .

The end of the session naturally progressed to the end of the night and Dimitri's promise to drive Byleth home, which brought on a new wave of nervousness that he wasn't ready for. He shifted between chatting about the game obsessively to utter silence, which he figured must have irritated Byleth. And yet every time he glanced at her to glean her response and adjust how he spoke to suit her mood, she was smiling gently with her hands folded in her lap. 

"Well, tonight was fun." He said as he pulled up in front of her house. It had since gone dark and the only light they had was the yellow glow from the street lamps.

"Yeah. I guess our characters are dating now."

"Yeah." Dimitri chuckled, but he had nothing to add to help ease the obvious tension between them. He thought of asking her out like the others would have urged him to, but the thought of doing so for a second time that night made him nauseated. 

"Do you...want to get some dinner sometime?" 

Dimitri couldn't see Byleth's face as she spoke as she turned to look out the window, but he could see her wind a lock of hair around her index finger.

"As a group?"

"Ah...no. Just us. Like...as a date."

He thought his ears were deceiving him when she said the words  _ as a date _ . He thought it was a trick of the mind, him hearing what he wanted to hear. And yet when she turned back to him, he could see an unmistakable pink flush across her cheeks while she anticipated his answer. 

"Yes! I mean...uh...yes. Just text me when you want to discuss the details."

"Okay. Cool. Thanks again for the ride." Byleth unbuckled her seatbelt and gave him a swift peck to the cheek on her way out of the car. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to add here that the bit with Sylvain and the dragon was 100% a reference to Shrek, so if that was the impression you got, you were right. 
> 
> As always, [you can find me on Twitter.](https://www.twitter.com/queenofthisdick)


End file.
